Questions to Answer in Your Landing Page

A lot of startup landing pages are extremely confusing—particularly software.

Way too often I hit a website and have no clue what they sell—even if I stick around and read all the features and benefits on the homepage.

Confused people bounce and never return.

A landing page needs to answer these questions to be successful:

1. What is the product?

What does it do and how does it solve a problem they have?

Be extremely obvious.

Don't use fluffy filler words. Explain it like you would to grandma or nephew at Thanksgiving.

2. Is it right for me? Am I the target audience?

A tool that helps you "be more productive" is completely different if it's for a single parent, a corporate executive, or a solo creator.

Be clear whose problem the product solves—they'll feel more confident buying.

3. Is it legit?

Or does it look like a phishing/scam site to get your credit card info?

Invest a little in design. 80/20 is fine. Question 4 also helps.

4. Who else is using it? (Social proof)

People are more likely to buy if people and companies they respect are also customers.

"Oh if Airbnb and Microsoft say it's good, it must be!"

And if you add links to tweets from real accounts, it'll be verifiably legit.

5. How much?

Tell them how much it’s gonna cost them.

It's a waste of everyone's time if someone expects to pay $50/mo and gets quoted $5,000/mo after a 30-minute sales demo.

Bonus: Find clever ways to position it so that the price seems like a deal.

6. Where can I get help?

You can't anticipate every question, and no one reads every sentence on the page or FAQ.

Make it easy and obvious to contact you so you can answer their questions.

This also makes it seem more legit and that support is readily available. Use common questions to fix the copy on your landing page so fewer people ask it.

7. How do I take action?

What is the next step that you want the person to take? It should be obvious.

Bonus: Match the CTA to the "temperature" of the lead.

If they're coming in cold, don't ask them to buy immediately. Get them on a newsletter or free trial. If this is a landing page for a retargeting campaign or email, drive to a sale.